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Due to threatening weather, TarHeel Sports Car Club Points Event #1, Shamrock Showdown, did not happen on Sunday March 12th as scheduled. The Test and Tune planned for Saturday, March 11th, was canceled and the autocross was moved into its place. The day started a little on the chilly side, with a sunshine filled sky warming us all by the afternoon sessions. A fast and technical course was designed by Mark Beech and Michael Byrne. Walking the course in the morning, some thought that a few sections of the course might be slow. The reality was that it was a thinking man's/woman's course that allowed one to take “slow” sections with blazing speed, but only if you were really paying attention, visualizing, and looking ahead. Many thanks to Mark and Michael for a job well done.
There were 65 participants of which 13 were novices. All the competitors got 7 runs split between the morning and the afternoon. The Fastest Time of the Day was was nailed by Steven Carter in an STR S2000 at 41.012 seconds. STR was the largest class of the day. Not far behind was our PAX leader, Patrice Bousquet in a 2016 HS VW GTI with a PAX time of 33.124 seconds and a RAW time of 41.771 seconds. The usual CS battle was won by Michael Miller with a 41.999 in an NC Miata followed closely by Andrew Jonell. Francis Chan debuted his new Scion FRS with a class win in DS. Francis was seen buffing off the cone marks at lunch. He and Elizabeth shared equally by striking one cone each. Timothy Maxey surprised us all with a very fast time of 42.191 in an ES Miata. CAM has a new star, with a time of 44.694 sec, Aris Mantalvanos. Our novices showed tremendous improvements over the course of the day. Alex Frazier won with a PAX time of 36.435 sec, showing an improvement of 14 seconds over his first run. For more detailed results go to “Results” on THSCC.com. The suggestion has been made to name next year's first autocross, “The Chilly Cookoff”.
An overcast sun rose on Sunday to a view of snow flakes falling. As much as we hated rearranging the schedule, doing so proved to be the right thing to do for the safety of our competitors. Thanks to all of the staff, especially the registrars, Mary Johnson, Steven Spampinato, and Francis Chan, for fixing registration on short notice and in time for the event. The new wireless timers were debugged and ran all day without a single glitch. Many thanks to Carlton Whitehead and Rob Lupella for all their hard work researching, buying, and debugging the timing system. In general, the event ran very smoothly with no perceivable delays. Our next event will be at Cary Towne Centre on April 8th. Sign up early as this site fills up quickly and we have to limit enrollment. Go to THSCC “Calendar” for future event links to motorsportsreg.com.
We would like to thank Automotive Performance and Chassis for their support of THSCC. Please support our sponsors as they support us,
http://thscc.com/index.php/sponsors .